Georgia Rep. Tom Graves has been in office for less than two months, yet his GOP primary opponent is already casting him as an out-of-touch incumbent.

Lee Hawkins, a dentist and former state senator, is seizing on some of Graves’s first congressional votes as cudgel in Tuesday’s runoff election for the 9th District seat, slamming the new congressman for opposing a bill that would allow youth organizations access to state and federal background checks of prospective employees.

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POLITICO 44

He has also highlighted Graves’s opposition to legislation that would ban the interstate sale of pornographic “crush” videos depicting animal torture - even issuing a press release featuring an image of Hawkins cuddling his dog declaring, “My opponent could not be more wrong on this issue.”

For Hawkins, Graves’s votes provide fresh ammunition for a campaign in which the two men have gone head-to-head four times in three months. After finishing ahead of Hawkins in the special election and runoff to win the north Georgia-based seat GOP Rep. Nathan Deal vacated to run for governor, Graves topped Hawkins in last month’s regularly scheduled primary but failed to meet the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Hawkins spokeswoman Kris Carroll said the votes provided the campaign with an opportunity to cast Graves as removed from the needs of the north Georgia district.

“I think it’s an example of what [Graves] brought with him to Washington,” she said. “It’s an issue of who has the values of the 9th District, and through his votes, Tom Graves has shown that it’s Lee Hawkins.”

Last week, in a press release highlighting Graves’s votes, Hawkins wrote: “Voters are getting the message that Lee Hawkins is the true conservative, family-values problem-solver they have been clamoring for.” The release also suggested Graves’s “moral compass is not pointing in the same direction as the people of North Georgia.”

Graves has pushed back, arguing in a blog post — featuring an image of him and his children atop horses - that the animal crush bill was a constitutional overreach that did little to prevent actual animal abuse.

Tim Baker, Graves’s campaign manager, disputed the notion that the Georgia Republican had lost touch with voters back home.

“People sent Tom to Washington to represent their conservative values. He’s fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail and people are responding to that,” he said. “People see him as their congressman.”

Graves has sought to avoid the out-of-touch incumbent label, positioning himself as an aggressive and constituent-minded congressman. He released a statement last month promoting a “Freshman Member of the Year” award he had been given from fellow first-term House Republicans – even though he has only been in office since late June.

He’s also trying to put Hawkins on the defensive, branding him an opponent tax cuts, and airing TV ads accusing Hawkins of attending a rally in support of “the Obama-Pelosi big-government stimulus bill.”

“We’re still talking about the same things we’ve been talking about for 64 weeks,” said Baker. “We haven’t changed a thing we’ve done.”

As they head into their final matchup of the election cycle, Hawkins’s financial disadvantage is clear, with Graves spending over $1 million over the course of his campaign to Hawkins’s $617,000.

Graves’s coffers have been replenished by the financial backing of his House colleagues, as well as the anti-tax Club for Growth, which has bundled nearly $220,000 for Graves. Newly released pre-runoff contribution reports show Graves taking donations from members including House Minority Leader John Boehner, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

After three consecutive victories, Baker said there was little reason to believe Hawkins would win the race. “I think you’re going to see the same outcome you’ve seen in the last 90 days,” he said. “There’s nothing out there that shows this is going to be a different outcome.”